Conventionally grape crushers include the step of passing the bunches of grapes through at least a pair of grooved spaced rollers so that the grape berries are crushed to allow the juices to be extracted therefrom by a pressing operation.
These rollers through which the grapes pass must crush the grapes and also tend to damage the stems and stalks, and often tend to break these into smaller pieces.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,034,423 by Albert Demoisy discloses a continuous rotary press for extracting liquid from fragile products (for example fruits) where a rotor operates within a perforated housing, the rotor being divided into a plurality of compartments and carrying rollers and endless track members to press the material retained by the perforated housing.
R. G. Lohre et al in U.S. Pat. No. 2,682,832 discloses an apparatus for removal of juice from citrus fruit, with the rotor being mounted eccentrically within the rotatable outer casing so that the fruit is compressed to squeeze the juice therefrom.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,011,430 discloses an orange juice extractor wherein the fruit is subjected to a gradually increasing pressure, to squeeze the juice from the orange, the extractor including a rotor acting in conjunction with a surrounding drum.
U.S. Pat. No. 292,524 by Wilson and U.S. Pat. No. 2,119,972 by Steinbiss each disclose apparatus having a spiral or similarly shaped rotor to move the material, the spiral body increasing in diameter to produce an increasing pressure.
It is an object of this invention to provide a grape crusher in which the grape berries are crushed, split or opened in a simple manner to allow the juice to be extracted therefrom.
It is a further object to provide a grape crusher in which there is a ready separation of the stalks and stems from the crushed berries and pips with there being a minimum of damage to the skins themselves and also to the stems and stalks.